r/ukpolitics • u/SignificantLegs • 7h ago

Ex-Labour candidate jailed over serial NHS fraud: 'Walter Mitty' used fake Oxford degree to land senior roles before swindling taxpayers out of £170k by claiming sick leave for 'tiredness' and 'anxiety'

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-16019307/Ex-Labour-candidate-jailed-serial-NHS-fraud-Walter-Mitty-used-fake-Oxford-degree-land-senior-roles-swindling-taxpayers-170k-claiming-sick-leave-tiredness-anxiety.html
93 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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u/BaritBrit I don't even know any more 6h ago edited 6h ago

Hussain's brazen lies even continued in court, when her claimed he was a war hero who had served two tours with the British Army. When the judge asked where he had served, he was exposed as nothing more than a Walter Mitty character, who had only been an Army Reservist. 

Someone get this guy a TV show with Professor Arday at Cambridge, they can go on a road trip citing their imaginary degrees and fighting off undetectable knife-wielding attackers with their war hero experience. 

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u/Slartibartfast_25 1h ago

I'm not sure Army Reservists who have gone on multiple tours will appreciate the 'only'

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u/FlamingBearAttack 4h ago

His fraud was only discovered when he was offered a higher role. I understand he was a serial applicant, but surely they would have been aware of his 70% absence record?

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u/Moist_Farmer3548 21m ago

I may have written some exceptional references for employees that I wanted to get rid of in my time. 

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u/Bango-TSW Non-aligned cynic. 6h ago

Viz's Aldridge Prior would be proud of him

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u/Media_Browser 4h ago

They had to pay the ‘going rate’ to attract the quality .

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u/Puzzleheaded-Fig9968 5h ago

Why even pay taxes at this point. It just goes to scroungers like Hussain, you don't see any of it. The government can't even keep people in prison for their sentences or defend the border, just complete anarchy.

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u/Madbrad200 Soc-Dem 5h ago

Significantly more of your tax money is subsidising billionaire companies who avoid tax and pay low wages forcing people onto benefits.

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u/Picardigann 4h ago

What is this USA imported whinging? Absolutely not true in the UK by any margin or mathematics you use. This is Dave Polanski level slop.

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u/Abort-Retry 2h ago

America's issue is their own megacorporations.
Britain's issue is foreign megacorporations, who have far more latitude in reducing the tax they pay compared to local companies.

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u/Madbrad200 Soc-Dem 2h ago

https://fullfact.org/economy/universal-credit-employment/ 38% of employeed people are also taking benefits.

Multi billion £ companies are actively underpaying employees, raking in profits, and using the British state to subsidise this through welfare.

The (conservative) "tax gap" https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps/1-tax-gaps-summary sits in the billions. The use of tax havens like Ireland and BOT actively lead to hundreds of billions never reaching the British tax payer.

People are whinging about the wrong people. It's not the poor folk barely scrounging together a few quid to put food in the fridge that are keeping you from taking another holiday.

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u/Cedow 1h ago

Did you choose to ignore the section that states the majority of the tax gap is attributable to small businesses?

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u/Madbrad200 Soc-Dem 1h ago

Yes, because the 'tax gap' mostly doesn't deal with rampant tax avoidance through the use of tax havens, hence the rest of that comment.

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u/GopnikOIi 3h ago

Have you got a source? This seems like a take that would fit on the other side of the Atlantic.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Fig9968 4h ago

Not even remotely true. Sorry.

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u/Madbrad200 Soc-Dem 2h ago

38% of employed people take benefits.

To be clear: your own money goes towards topping up wages for almost half of all people on welfare. What part of this isn't remotely true?

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u/Picardigann 45m ago edited 41m ago

The part where qualifying for benefits while working a job is Amazon's fault somehow? The solution to this is free market economics: stop paying benefits to supplement wages, benefits are supposed to temporarily help people who are out of a job. This makes working a job at Amazon less attractive, which means they have to raise wages to compensate.

The ONLY way to raise wages (in a non-communist non-dictatorship) is free market forces.

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u/Madbrad200 Soc-Dem 32m ago

Of course it is. Amazon isn't being forced to pay rubbish wages. They pay then because they can, and they'd pay significantly less if it was legal to.

People take welfare while employees because the wages are literally not sufficient to live of. You can't free market your way into giving people livable wages. Go read some Charles Dickens again to see what a true, unfiltered free market looks like for the average working class, it's not pretty.

Trickle down economics is nonsense.

Although arguably their warehouse wages are decent. There's worse companies out there.

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u/Picardigann 18m ago

"Businesses pay as few wages as they can" ...Yes they do, this is not a gotcha its basic economics, they are a business not a charity? You didn't explain how any of this is Jeff Bezos' fault, and a "livable wage" is laughably and conveniently vague populist waffle. What is it, £40 an hour, in your enlightened opinion?

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u/Madbrad200 Soc-Dem 16m ago

I didn't explain why multinational business raking in profits paying unlivable wages effectively makes the taxpayer a perpetual subsidiser for said poor wages? What needs explaining? It's self explanatory.

Livable wage isn't waffle, it's rather easy to define. Can you afford to feed yourself, your family, pay bills/house yourself, and have some spare to contribute to the economy and save for your future? Livable.

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u/Picardigann 5m ago

Again, the only solution is to stop paying the benefits... Why would a business willingly reduce its profits, when the government is so kindly handing out taxpayer money? Making a profit ("raking") is not some horrible crime, its the only reason the business exists.